Intention
- Created by: debbieoxt
- Created on: 12-05-18 13:04
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- Intention
- Intention is the most serious level of mens rea and therefore is the mens rea of serious offences such as murder and GBH.
- Direct intention
- The defendant desired or set out to achieve the result.
- The defendant foresaw a particular result as a certainty and wanted to bring it about
- It was defined in Moloney as "a true desire to bring about the consequence"
- Oblique intention
- The defendant did not want to kill or seriously injure the victim.
- It was not their desire or purpose
- However, the defendant knew that his actions would inevitably lead to the victim's death or serious injury.
- Parliament has not defined through legislation the meaning od the term oblique intention. It is up to the jury to decide whether the necessary intent was present. The judge must give the jury guidance which has been developed through case law.
- Statutory guidance - s.8 Criminal Justice Act 1967 - the test for intention is subjective. Just because ordinary people would have foreseen the result does not mean that D had oblique intention.
- Nedrick - Jury has to ask 2 questions: 1) How probable was the consequence? 2) Did D foresee that consequence?
- Woollin - House of Lords confirmed the virtual certainty test from Nedrick. D must have realised that death or serious injury was 'virtually certain' where the jury were satisfied on this then there was evidence on which they could find intention.
- Transferred Malice
- Latimer - Using the principle of transferred malice, the mens rea that the defendant had for the man could be transferred to the woman.
- Contemporaneity
- Coincidence of actus reus and mens rea. In order for an offence to take place, the actus reus and mens rea must be present at the same time.
- Fagan - Court of Appeal held that driving on the foot and remaining there was a continuing act and it was enough that D had the mens rea at some point during it.
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